Citalá, River of Stars
Citalá, River of Stars is my latest exploration of slowly-changing harmonic music. I used aleatoric patterns of notes in often unusual modes, each selected to evoke a different star.
December 2023
Matrix for Glaciers
This updated version of “Music For Glaciers will be diffused at the Beyond Listening International Symposium on Sonic Ecologies, Moholy-Nagy University of Art and Design, Budapest, 22-25 November 2023.
November 2023
Bytebeat Metabiosis
“Bytebeat Metabiosis” will premiere at MANTIS (Manchester Theatre in Sound) Festival, University of Manchester, 28-29 October 2023.
October 2023
Sonic Vigil 11
Sonic Vigil is a three day festival of improvised music that returns after a long break. The festival culminates in a six-hour group improvisation with many wonderful folk including invited guest David Toop.
September 2023
Periphery
Periphery was composed in 1999, but my first live performance took place 24 years later, at Music on Tap, The Commercial, Limerick.
February 2023
Tender Glance
“Tender Glance” is an excerpt from an improvised performance at Sonic Vigil 8 (St. Anne’s Church, Cork, 2014). This composition was played at Silence Festival Internazionale di Musica Acusmatica, Cittadella Mediterranea della Scienza Bari, Italy.
December 2022
Co-Chair of Music Panel for ICMC 2022
The International Computer Music Conference is the largest of its kind in the world. For ICMC 2022 I was Co-Chair of the Music Panel with Neil O’Connor.
July 2022
River Shannon Soundwalk
The River Shannon Soundwalk is a curated collection of 20 submissions, placed on a gorgeous walking route that explores the University of Limerick’s place on the riverbank.
July 2022
Sonic Practice Now
I was guest editor for the Sonic Practice Now issue of Interference: Journal of Audio Cultures. In the fallout from COVID-19 this process took two years to complete.
July 2022
Music For Glaciers
This composition is created using two chaotic oscillators. These are played within a performance space in order to activate the room modes. Various psychoacoustic affects are created, most evident when the listener moves from place to place within the room.
April 2022
Spectral formation (yes to peace)
“Spectral formation (yes to peace)” was created for Shortwave Transmissions, a project of Cities and Memory.
February 2022
Strays 2
STRAYS is a two album set that spans a decade of electroacoustic compositions. This anthology collects tracks from compilations and collaborative projects, unreleased experiments, and excerpts from live performances. It acts as a definitive statement of my compositional praxis in the last decade.
January 2022
Strays 1
STRAYS is a two album set that spans a decade of electroacoustic compositions. This anthology collects tracks from compilations and collaborative projects, unreleased experiments, and excerpts from live performances. It acts as a definitive statement of my compositional praxis in the last decade.
December 2021
Lullaby of the Nymphs (Magicicada Brood X)
The composition “Lullaby of the Nymphs” was released on Cicada 17 Requiem Brood (Camembert Électrique, France).
October 2021
Radiosphere 2021
“Radiosphere 2021” is based on listening to shortwave in a suburb of Moscow, gathered by way of a streaming internet radio station.
July 2021
language fades in the dominion of the birds
My composition “language fades in the dominion of the birds” was included on Communal Music Vol. 9, released by AEMC (Amsterdam, Netherlands).
May 2021
The Last Frost Fair
Seven tracks composed using material from a compact disc, skipping in place. Crystalline sounds in a beautiful array of ever-changing stasis. Released on Stolen Mirror.
December 2020
Field Piano (for Harold Budd)
Improvised in honour of Harold Budd, on the occasion of his passing.
December 2020
The Signal
The short piece “Alpha Canis Majoris {signal code: juniper}” was commissioned by recording artist Jim Griffin, eventually woven into the album The Signal.
November 2020
World Listening Delay
This is an improvisation made for uni.Sol_31, an ongoing experiment in group telepathy coordinated by Slavek Kwi. The original field recording was made on World Listening Day 2020 at a secret location on Lough Derg. Released on Stolen Mirror.
July 2020
Indirect Collaborations
In 2020 Ed Devane invited artists to create new pieces from a small sample library he had created. My contribution was “Small Placebos”.
July 2020
Universal Commercial Electric Telegraphic
The telegraph allowed instantaneous point-to-point communication over the wires. This album pays homage with sequencer patterns evolving over time within an environment of tape degradation, echoes, and interlocking rhythms.
March 2020
Concept Null Launch
My last performance, coming a few days before the first Irish pandemic lockdown. I performed Music For Glaciers, a slowly-evolving piece for two complex oscillators.
March 2020
Black Moon - Waxing
The track “BLKmoon” was created under the influence of the Black Moon at 11:37 on 30 August. It was released under the name 7PRS for this compilation on Sofia Records.
February 2020
Angel
As part of the IndieCork Festival, a group of media artist converged on The Guesthouse in Shandon to perform the works of Scott Walker. I performed “Engel 21 (For Scott Walker)”.
October 2019
Limerick Sound Festival
With Alan Dormer, curated this day of musical performance, installations, and discussion. Hosted by the Irish World Academy of Music and Dance, University of Limerick. An ISSTA event.
August 2018
Sounds from Sri Lanka
Sounds from Sri Lanka is a project of Cities and Memory that asked composers to remix and reimagine location recordings by Stéphane Marin. Selected pieces were selected for a free album, but many more are also available.
May 2018
Division By Zero @ Algorave
A short release performance was a part of Algorave, at Pharmacia, Limerick, 13 March 2018.
March 2018
Division By Zero
Division By Zero is the debut release from 7PRS, the alter-ego of composer Robin Parmar. This album has been released by Kim Cascone’s famous label Silent Records, and is available on Bandcamp and worldwide through all digital channels.
March 2018
Perturbation
“Perturbation” is an electroacoustic composition that highlights the silence between sounds as much as the unexpected timbres of the chosen materials: crumpled paper, shells rubbed together, and a hammered metal pole.
February 2018
Improvisation on Korg Volca (4 Mika Vainio)
The Korg Volca is a line of small, inexpensive, battery-powered electronic instruments, each designed for a specific purpose. This improvisation is designed to test the limits of a single Volca, both in terms of sonic output and with respect to its minimal performance interface. It is an homage to Mika Vainio and his experiments with minimal techno.
September 2017
ClusterChord
ClusterChord is a musical instrument that allows multiple performers to trigger sounds through a tangible sequencer interface. The sounds are produced acoustically, using a variety of plucked and buzzing strings. This instrument was designed by Ed Devane for the exhibition Sound Check at the Science Gallery, Trinity, Dublin. I wrote the code for the embedded microprocessors.
June 2017
"In that place, the air was very different"
The sound installation creates imaginary places from field recordings I have compiled over several years. For each instantiation, I make new recordings from the environs as a personal response to place. As these are added to the available sound pool, the piece accumulates its own sonic memory of the places I have been.
April 2017
Before The Listening Begins
“Sacred Spaces” is the latest collaborative project from Cities and Memory. My contribution was created from Melissa Pons’ recording of a church congregation in Sweden, made in the moments before the organ processional. She writes: “I have been fascinated by what happens in a room where the audience is waiting for the music to start”. What exists in the space before listening?
February 2017
A Celebration of Pauline Oliveros
This performance commemorated the passing of Pauline Oliveros, whose work had touched many in Cork. Performers in the group improvisation included Danny Mc Carthy, Mick O’Shea, Harry Moore, Karen Power, John Godfrey, and myself.
December 2016
"In that place, the air was very different"
The sound installation creates imaginary places from field recordings I have compiled over several years. For each instantiation, I make new recordings from the environs as a personal response to place. As these are added to the available sound pool, the piece accumulates its own sonic “memory”.
The artists of Echo Echo Dance Theatre responded with a generous intervention.
November 2016
Division by Zero {shadow}
My track “Division by Zero {shadow}” has been released on From Here to Tranquility - Volume 7, a massive compilation from Silent Records, including almost three hours of music from 24 different artists.
September 2016
Trembling the Manifold
The Next Station is a sound map of the London Underground that “creates an alternative sound world based on the experience and memory of the iconic Tube.”
My contribution “Trembling the manifold” was created entirely from a field recording of Willesden Junction, London.
August 2016
A Riba-Roja d'Ebre
A concert organised as part of the Terra Alta residency. Matt Green, Linda O Keeffe, and myself performed with several local sound artists. The location was an agrobotiga selling local, sustainable produce.
August 2016
Hurrian Hymn No. 6
“Hurrian Hymn No. 6” is the oldest known piece of music, a cult hymn from 3400 years ago. The cuneiform signs in the Hurrian language were discovered in the ancient Syrian city of Ugarit. I started this arrangement a few years ago, but have completed and released it now in dedication to the people of Syria.
July 2016
Dust on my Hands
This four channel composition premiered in Dublin as part of Listen/compose/perform, curated by Karen Power.
The original tracks were created by sounding the former Royal Cork Yacht Club of Cobh, Ireland, using materials such as beach stones, upright piano, and rusted iron ornaments.
June 2016
Three Foghorns
This composition was created by layering cruise ship foghorns, diffusing them from different locations about the performance space. Including, notably, from inside a locked sea chest. It premiered on the final night (25 May) of my residency at the Sirius Arts Centre.
May 2016
Requiem David Bowie (Some Are)
This piece was written to commemorate the death of David Bowie. It was premiered on Nova, Lyric FM, RTÉ and used in the play Yoga for Beginners by Adam Wyeth.
March 2016
Stolen Mirror album launch
This performance included artists from my label. Steve McCourt was direct from Shanghai and Fergus Kelly from Dublin. The three of us played together for a final improvisation… for the first time!
February 2016
The Garden of Adumbrations
“The Garden of Adumbrations” is an electroacoustic composition made entirely of local field recordings, some unaltered, some subject to musique concrète techniques. The result is an anecdotal experience that places the listener in an unfolding sonic ecosystem. The composition represents a world of connections, shadows, and challenges.
March 2015
Assisted Improvisation on the People's Park Monochord
Improvisation on custom instruments built by Ed Devane for City of Culture, performed in the kiosk at People’s Park, Limerick.
March 2015
Foundsoundscape
Foundsoundscape was an online “radio” project curated by Janek Schaefer. He continuously mixed recordings of one thousand locations as captured by one hundred different recordists. I contributed three field recordings.
March 2015
The Absence of Baudrillard
This improvisation was first performed in a bookshop in Mainz, Germany, to commemorate the passing of French philosopher Jean Baudrillard. Seven years later, this album reworks the source material.
March 2015
Caged Birds (Augmentation)
Composed for 100x John: A Global Salute to John Cage in Sound and Image, premiering at the White Box Gallery, New York City in 2011. This piece has since been played in Ireland, UK, and Portugal.
July 2014
Bastion
“Bastion” is a series of electroacoustic compositions made from field recordings processed into extreme timbres. These were created for the “Wall” installation at Sonic Arts Waterford 2014, in partnership with Waterford Festival of Architecture.
July 2014
An Evening with Pauline Oliveros
Pauline Oliveros is an important musician, improviser, and thinker, known for her practice of “deep listening”. She was in Cork to receive an honourary degree. As celebration, this group improvisation was organised at The Guesthouse. I was honoured to take part, alongside The Quiet Club, Karen Power, Harry Moore, John Godfrey, and other friends.
June 2014
Under the Streets of Limerick
This piece was recorded and composed in a marathon session, entirely on World Listening Day 2012.
May 2014
Sonic Vigil 8
Sonic Vigil is a festival of improvised music, sound art, and video that takes place every year in Cork. I participated in the six-hour group improvisation with many wonderful folk including Áine O’Dwyer, Paul Hegarty, Danny Mc Carthy, Mick O’Shea, and Vicky Langan.
May 2014
...between...
This album was created in collaboration with David Colohan. He provided several field recordings and small musical excerpts, which I combined with my own selections to create imaginary landscapes. It’s released on Gruenrekorder and available as a download.
February 2014
The Invisible Viola Project
The Invisible Viola Project was my experiment in anti-virtuosity, conducted by approaching an instrument I had not played in three decades. The performances included a collaboration with Ed Devane and a solo venture with video backing.
January 2013
Bicameral Dash
“Bicameral Dash” combines broken beats, viola played frantically in the dark, and sounds rolling in from some distant shore. This track is available on For Tom Carter, a Deserted Village benefit compilation.
August 2013
Sonic Vigil 6 launch
For this group improvisation I played alongside special guests Alexander Hacke (Einstürzende Neubauten, Crime and the City Solution) and Danielle de Picciotto at the Lewis Glucksman Gallery. The eveny launched the album documenting Sonic Vigil 6. One performance begets another.
May 2013
Two Observations
“Two Observations” was a solo piece for electronics and field recordings that marks one of my first public engagements with video. This was performed at the annual Sonic Vigil in 2011.
May 2013
Fragments from an Improvisation for Abandoned Parking Garage
This performance was part fo a group improvisation in an abandoned underground parking garage in Galway. It commemorates the release of a compilation album on Declan Kelly’s Abandon Reason label.
January 2013
Oxygen Debt
The anthology “No Labels No Music” is a project of Portuguese netlabel Editora Do Porto. The challenge is to create an original composition from an archive of field recordings. Participants are encouraged to chop, mix, and mutilate.
January 2013
The Drones
Six years in the making, this album explores the contemporary drone through many methods and in various forms. Tracks vary from field recordings (“Roadworks”) to compositions for viola and oscillator (“Transfixed In Her Stare”). Percussion, electric guitar, organ, and bullroarer all play their part.
January 2013
"Agentia" (for six musicians and tape)
“Agentia” was commissioned by the Quiet Music Ensemble. The piece presents musicians with a series of field recordings that document various natural and built environments. Their task is to improvise within this structure, adopting strategies common to agents within an ecosystem: signalling, camouflage, mimicry, adaptation, and augmentation.
November 2012
Freeze-Thaw
This short field recording was included on an idiosyncratic collection of sixteen similarly brief pieces, entitled 1 Minute Autohypnosis Sex War Noise Faith White Truth Light Europe Death Seed Red Net. This CD came in a transparent sleeve, adorned with mailing addresses and a bonus credit card with which can use to purchase karma, or perhaps faith, or maybe noise.
November 2012
After Keem
This sixty second recording is based on a field recording of the beach as pictured in the photo. The track was selected for inclusion on the 60x60 Canada Mix and subsequently was diffused in Vancouver.
August 2012
Spinward and Falling
This sixty second composition was selected for the 60x60 Europe Mix and also chosen for airplay on WGDR-WGDH as part of the 60x60 Radio Request Extravaganza.
August 2012
Picabia's Hammer
“Picabia’s Hammer”, “Propagating The Catastrophe”, and “The Nightingale Blockade” are three pieces of one minute duration, released alongside an incredible 260 others, on the compilation SIGNALVOID, described as “a creature with scaly features that resembles something familiar, perhaps of reptilian descent, but is ultimately not of this world”.
August 2012
Device for the Transmission of Electrical Energy Through Air
These recordings are the extant traces of radiophonic experiments made on analogue equipment between 1987 and 2012. They represent the mediums of radio (AM, FM, shortwave) and tape (cassette, microcassette, cart, and open reel) in relationship to the somatic and the linguistic.
June 2012
Marmaros
This hour-long ambient piece is derived entirely from a film theme tune, slowed down to reveal the harmonic structure as a deep “ocean of sound”. Originally released in 2007 in a small CD edition. The 2012 version is remixed and remastered.
June 2012
Sonic Abyss
Sonic Abyss was a series of group improvisation for the Drogheda Arts Festival 2012. Contributors from across Ireland combined sounds in different configurations, some of which are avilable on a free digital download from Farpoint Recordings.
May 2012
The Second Silence
“The Second Silence” is a composition for eight speakers that explores the dichotomy between noise and silence, and in particular how our perception of one changes in proximity to the other.
May 2012
Tank
Tank was a series of improvised performances, curated by Tony Langlois and Harry Moore. This instantiation featured Ed Devane, John Daly, Harry Moore, Mick O’Shea, and myself.
January 2012
No Input Software System (Cybernetic Improvisation)
The “no source” mixing desks of Toshimaru Nakamura generate sound from the noise inherent in an electrical circuit. Similarly, the No Input Software System (NISE) enabled three live cybernetic improvisations throughout 2011, the results being released on CD.
December 2011
Apophenic Ecosystem C10 C30
This sound installation was comprised of 83 short tracks, sourced from cassette tape noise. These were played back at low volumes, as a subtle augmentation.
September 2011
Deserted Village
This composition was sourced from the ambiance of the deserted village, Achill Island, County Mayo. The sound of the sheep bouncing between the field and mountain was incredible! It was included in To the Field and Yonder at the Gorey Arts & Film Festival.
August 2011
Induction Circuit
Induction Circuit is a self-directed walk that explores the secret domains and hidden sounds of Catherine Street (Limerick, Ireland). Setting off from a designated starting point with a music player and headphones, the participant is encouraged to experience familiar territory anew.
May 2011
Strange Attractor
In this improvisation I played with Danny Mc Carthy, Irene Murphy and Mick O’Shea (Strange Attractor) in the lovely first floor room of the Crawford Art Gallery. The series was later documented by a book and DVD.
April 2011
What Do I See?
“What Do I See?” was my contribution to the group show Exquisite Corpse [Five Senses], which was installed at the Soundfjord Sonic Art Gallery in London, over April 2011.
April 2011
2003 UB313
“2003 UB313” celebrates the discovery of the solar system’s largest dwarf planet, Eris. It was included in the exhibit Sublimation: An Exercise in the Immersive at Oboro in Montréal, Canada.
April 2011
Snowblind and Falling
“Snowblind and Falling” foregrounds the textures of my own voice and verse, in homage to Beckett. This new piece continues my engagement with spoken word that dates back to my earliest radiophonic works. It was included on the CD Out of Silence (Modisti Records, Barcelona).
March 2011
Valentine's Day gig
An untitled piece for electric guitar and blender was performed on this “night of music, art, partying, and apocalyptic love”, when I opened for Our Love Will Destroy The World (AKA Campbell Kneale).
February 2011
Fold Penetration
This 12 minute-long composition was created from a single sample of one second duration, for the Invisible Frequencies Bookworm project.
January 2011
Avoidance Strategies
This album was created entirely with feedback loops within a custom software system. Each evolving sonic ecosystem was played live as an improvisation between person and machine. The resulting complexity belies the fact that no samples, synthesisers, overdubs, editing or post-production was applied.
January 2011
Qarun Hydrophone Death
This track was originally created for the Mer-Wer project, using original and manipulated sounds by a recording collective. It was then programmed as part of the Hilltown New Music Festival 2010.
December 2010
wave, particle, falling leaves
This edited four-channel version of “wave, particle, falling leaves” was played at The Dragonfly Multi-Arts Festival, held at a bronze-age settlement and open-air museum near Gothenburg, Sweden.
August 2010
OPENED3:SPATIAL
I created a sound environment using sine tones and field recordings. This was diffused live, accompanying thirteen dancers, choreographed by Edd Schouten.
July 2010
Realm of Circulation
This piece was played on the Sonic Art Jukebox as part of the SoundFjord Gallery Open Day.
May 2010
Induction Ritual
This thirty minute-long radio programme explores the electric guitar as a tactile surface that generates sound through electromagnetic induction. It was prepared especially for the RadiaLx international radio art festival.
May 2010
Catherine Street Augmentation
This playful investigation into acoustic memory overlays the actuality of a public street with sounds recorded at the same location one week earlier.
May 2010
The Lights In Room 7
This site-specific sound installation was commissioned by curator Elizabeth Hatz for Ireland’s art biennale, “EV+A 2010 Matters”. The installation augmented the acosutics of the room with processed recordings of the flourescent lights.
January 2010
The Limerick-Toronto Subway Line
This site-specific electroacoustic performance created a fictional place by merging recordings of the Toronto subway system with a live feed from the busy street outside the café. The piece was an exploration of sonic memory and place formation.
September 2009
Ouroboros
This sonic performance involves a feedback loop between a microphone and radios placed about the room. This loop is manipulated through proximity, induction and other effects of the performer’s body on the system.
September 2009
The Absence of Baudrillard (performance)
An electroacoustic improvisation performed in a bookshop in Mainz, Germany, to commemorate French philosopher Jean Baudrillard.
October 2008
Pack Ice
“Pack Ice” was included on the music compilation Endless Endless 5, a product of Sheffield label Audiobulb. The web archive is defunct, but the piece is now available on my album The Drones.
September 2007
escalation 372 live in Galway
Live electronic gig with vocalist Susannah Clare, at a Stress!! event at De Burgo’s in Galway.
June 2007
The Rite of Spring
This audacious re-interpretation of Stravinsky’s “The Rite of Spring” was choreographed by Katarina Mojzisova. Three young dancers were set to dance in a shopping mall. My contribution was audio design and sound operation.
March 2007
Granulation Knaves
Performance as escalation 746, opening for KK NULL at a Soundings concert. On stage I played a guitar stripped of its strings and a Nokia mobile phone, fed through Reaktor software synthesis.
October 2006